Day 37: Breakfast

[scarletspeedstr.livejournal.com]

[for Sylar, I believe]

At the sound of the intercom, Wally jerked awake and blinked around at the room. He’d fallen asleep. He should have been up and keeping an eye open for ZEX, but he’d fallen asleep waiting on his bed.

“Idiot,” he groaned, ruffling his hair and sighing in annoyance. “Way to help a guy out, hotshot.” Hopefully ZEX hadn’t dropped by and thought he’d left or something, or wouldn’t be too mad at him for just forgetting about it like that. If he was lucky, he’d be able to catch up with the other patient at some point and explain what had happened.

Rolling himself a little awkwardly out of the bed, Wally took the opportunity to stretch his injured leg and test how well it was holding up. It was feeling a bit better, not so much that he could abandon his crutch or that it didn’t pull painfully if he wasn’t careful, but better. Tony had apparently made it through the night in one piece as well, which was a relief. He really didn’t feel comfortable about the thought of his roommate wandering about on his own with an injured arm. Not when Wally himself could relax and fall asleep in the apparent safety of their room.

Yeah, he wasn’t going to let himself forget that one in a hurry.

It was at that moment that the door swung open to admit one of the nurses. She seemed surprised to find him awake and ready to go already, but smiled warmly. “Hungry, are we Mr. West? Well in that case, let’s get you to the cafeteria. The staff have provided some delicious French Toast as well as a range of other foods I’m sure you’ll like. Now will you be needing a hand with your leg, dear?”

“No thanks, I can handle it,” Wally replied, smiling back. After all, it probably wasn’t the nurses’ fault that this place was so messed up, so it wasn’t like picking fights with them would do anything. With a cheery wave goodbye, Wally slowly made his way to the cafeteria, keeping a tight grip on his crutch all the while. Obtaining a plate of food was only slightly less difficult than it had been yesterday – he didn’t have the painkillers to work around this time – but he managed well enough, coming away from the buffet with a tray containing a plate piled high with slices of French Toast and slathered in maple syrup, butter, and sugar, as well as a glass of juice. Not quite as good as some coffee would be right now, but the sugar would hopefully make up for it. And, with how few people were here at the moment, he could afford to take more food than might have been considered ‘normal’ – he’d have most of it gone by the time anyone came to keep him company, then he could just worry about how many extra serves would be allowed before he aroused suspicion.

Feeling pretty happy with how things were looking so far, Wally hummed faintly to himself as he dug in to his breakfast.

Comments

[scarletspeedstr.livejournal.com]

"Claire huh? I'll be sure to keep an eye out for her," Wally said, hooking over the last of Zack's toast - obviously he didn't want it - to join his scrambled eggs. Something in the way Zack had said 'special' caught his attention though.

"Wait, you mean she has powers or something?" Wally asked curiously. It wouldn't have been that odd, as there was a surprising number of humans with extra abilities these days; the more widespread presence of the League had encouraged people to be more open about having powers and League membership was booming. That metahumans might also exist in Zack's world was another thing that didn't surprise Wally as much as it should. The League had travelled to a couple of different dimensions, both of which had contained superheroes. If anything, Wally had been more confused by the people he'd met so far who didn't have them around.

"If that's the case, I get why she'd want to keep it hidden. Not exactly something you want to have out in the open with crazy doctors around the place. Or if she's got some kind of secret identity like the Justice League," he finished, smiling wryly as he set to work on some of the sausages and bacon.

[darwinism]

"Yeah, please do," Sylar nodded at Wally's offer to watch for Claire. She didn't know about his 'Zachary' alias, so chances were that if Wally mentioned his name, she wouldn't be suspicious enough to go running in the other direction.

Wally, on the other hand, seemed to be incapable of suspicion in its entirety. Sylar smiled as the other man gave information without even being asked – very intriguing information. So, Wally was from a world where not only powers existed, but also a 'Justice League'? If Superman was apparently among their ranks, Sylar wondered what other powers could possibly be available from that world.

"Powers... yes, but a secret identity? Not so much." Sylar paused and then raised his eyes towards Wally, his face lighting up as if in sudden realization. "Wait... you... you know about powers too?"

[scarletspeedstr.livejournal.com]

"Well yeah," Wally answered around a mouthful of food, "everyone where I'm from knows about them, though not everyone has 'em." He swallowed and continued more normally. "The Justice League are pretty widespread these days, there's gotta be like close to at least fifty members on top of the original seven the group started with."

He smiled, slightly nostalgic at the memory of how things had been back then, before the League had gotten so big and concerned with rotating shifts and making sure everyone got a fair share of time on and off the Watchtower. It had just been the seven of them working as a tight-knit group. Something would threaten the world, and you knew the other guys well enough to know they'd have your back and be able to handle the situation. Now... well it wasn't that he didn't trust anyone he worked with, but there was a difference between trusting them and knowing them as well as he knew the rest of the core group.

"So, I'm guessing powers aren't as widely known about where you're from?" he asked, returning his attention to the conversation at hand. "Is that why Claire wants to keep it secret?"

[darwinism]

Sylar watched his newfound "friend" closely and carefully took stock of Wally's words. A world where powers were out in the open? Maybe that meant that Wally would be more willing than most to divulge the identities of those who had abilities; after all, from the smile that spread across his face at the mention of this "Justice League," he probably had some kind of connection with them if he wasn't a member himself.

"No, they're not," Sylar said with a sigh in response to Wally's question. He put on a troubled, almost sad expression. "You see... there's this company kind of like this place – people who capture those with powers and lock them away. Who experiment on us–"

He paused as if he'd said too much, then smiled sheepishly.

"Let's just say I'm kind of in the same boat."

[scarletspeedstr.livejournal.com]

A place that locked away those with metahuman abilities and experimented on them? Wally swallowed past the sudden bad taste in his mouth. It reminded him of some of the shady things Cadmus had done while trying to find ways to take down the Justice League on the off chance they all went rogue. He didn't think they'd actually gone so far as to kidnap people, but they had cloned and created their own metahumans and the Justice League hadn't found out about everything they'd been up to either.

"They experiment on you?" he asked, the concern obvious in his voice. "And you have powers too? Geez, no wonder you want to keep it to yourself. But don't worry, I won't tell anyone about it, I promise." He smiled reassuringly and, with a little difficulty, reached across the table and clasped Zack's shoulder.

"Your secret's safe with me, and if you ever need anyone to talk to or help out with something, I'll try and do everything I can, okay?" He paused, letting go of the other man and settling back in his chair before continuing.

"I'm not going to be around there tonight, but if you ever want to find me for anything, my room number is M79. Just in case something comes up that you need a hand with."